~ Day by day with RA …

Hip Surgery T+1 Day

Well, wherat can I say. The surgery went great and I have absolutely no pain. Although that might change today for two reasons. First, Dr. Tucker put pain medicine directly into the surgery site, which wears off after about a day. The second is they’ll start physical therapy today. But they believe strongly in pain management, which is a great attitude to have.

The one issue I had, not suprisingly was getting the IV started. Dr. Pirinelli is an angel disguised as an anesthesiologist and he was as upset as I was that we had problems. He blew out two veins in the right arm before he struck blood on the left arm.

At this point I’m really not having too many issues. My blood pressure is very low 90/45 and my hemoglobin is as well, so they’re returning my blood to me, which ought to help solve the issues. I also got some food in my system this morning as well which should help all the way around.

While I’m have very minimal discomfort around the incision, I can already tell the joint pain I was having has improved for the better. Of course, the drugs have a bit to do with that, but it is different and it is better. Dr. Tucker said there were no surprises. There was a little bit of cartilege left, but it was very unhealthy, so we made the right decision.

They’ve got me on antibiotics through today and I got my first blood thinner shot in the tummy. The shot was nothing and I don’t think I’ll have any problems doing them myself when I get home. I’m wearing those TED socks to help prevent blood cots and all day yesterday through this morning they had these gadgets on my feet that would pump up, then deflate. All this is to keep everything moving.

They strapped me into this strange wedge-shaped pillow and my right leg is also painted green. I’ve got some pictures on my phone and I’ll build a page for my medically minded voyeuristic friends once I get home and can download them.

I’ve got a great team of people taking care of me and am very pleased about that.

I will tell you that I had fear and trepidation in my heart going into this. If there is anyone reading this that is contemplating the surgery, based on my experience, please don’t hesitate.

Overall, I think it was a rousing success and I don’t think I could have asked for a better outcome. I know that part of the outcome were the wonderful thoughts and prayers people have sent my way and I am truly grateful. I’ll check in tomorrow with news after the PT.